Friday, 25 September 2009

Above: just to completely contradict the previous post, I present a little toucan which is not yet available but will be appearing in Seed stores shortly as a girls' t-shirt print. Although I have designed many many a bird print, I am particularly fond of this one as he is quite exotic and not a little kitsch in a late 70's/ early 80's way. Speaking of this era, I think that my bird would go particularly well with a listen to The Models' Two Cabs to the Toucanfrom 1981. This 7 minute + YouTube clip includes my favourite Atlantic Romantic too and is great fun.

Saturday, 19 September 2009

Above: I generally wait until my work arrives in storebefore I can post it. This is because obviously there are thousands of people out there who read my blog and are going to immediately copy my designs otherwise. Ha! The problem with posting designs at least four months after coming up with them is that I can't remember what my thought process was anymore. Here I offer physical evidence: it's my first version of the fabric print below. All of the painted bits were done separately -- in black ink actually -- then they were layered over one another in Photoshop. The bird silhouette, then its wing, the three layers making up the flower, etc. I am no more technical than that, and I admit that with some shame.

I would think the final birds a little bit Collingwood magpie-likeif it wasn't for the fact that they are actually navy and white. See them flitting about on a dress or some very funny little pantshere.

Thursday, 17 September 2009

Above: I love folk art and I have always been particularly fond of the traditional Swedish Dala horse. I visited Sweden last year and loved it so much that I wanted to keep reminding myself of its wonders after I got back to work. This was the first thing that I did in Sweden's honour. I hope that I haven't messed with its horse too much.Above: work in progress. Of course my main resources were the photos of actual Dala horses on the left, but I also copied and pasted a more realistic horse to refer to for the headgear and tail. The tail especially is a bit of poetic licence, as Dala horses don't really have one except when they are sometimes painted onto the back of the body. My sketch is on the bottom right.

Above: the finished t-shirt, which can also be found here. It looks nice in pink too!

Sunday, 13 September 2009

Above: I have just finished my entry for this year's Illustrators Australia9 x 5 exhibition. With the anniversary theme of "20" I thought that I might make twenty illustrations showing twenty different types of illustration, therefore twenty different reasons why one might want to be an illustrator. Illustration for children, mapmaking, food, fashion, travel, automotive, books, textiles, decoration, plants, animals and medicine. Perhaps not quite twenty, but these are all things that interest me and the opportunity to research and then draw/paint them is always a pleasure. Thanks to the very kind brother Nick for cutting the little pieces out -- and so carefully!

Hello!

This blog is both a record of my work and an attempt to contribute to the vast inspiration that thousands of other creative people have given me via the internet.
I worked for many years in the fashion industry, designing prints, textiles and developing products for children. I now work as a freelance illustrator and make a variety of work under my own name. Some of the things that I make can be found in my etsy shop and in galleries and stores around Australia.